You know, I am going to do a surrealism project that doesn't use
collage. Once the trees loose their leaves, we're going to draw them in
charcoal realistically. (it'll be a lesson on putting a middle tone on
the paper and adding and subtracting...using that ol' eraser! For
highlighting.) I am then going to have them take their realistic
drawings and redraw them and turn the second picture into a surrealistic
OR fantasy (for those who think surrealism is weird)picture.. like
drawing fish going in and out of the trees, or treating the trees
themselves surrealistically....like 'candy' trees where the trunks are
wiggly candy canes and the leaves are something else. Does this make
sense? I plan on using the Art Stiks from prismacolor.
If anyone's interested, I can tell you how it goes.

My middle schoolers love surrealism - except for the
ones who are uncomfortable with anything "weird".

But when it comes to DOING surrealism, collage has by
far been the most successful, Smithsoniam magazines
are my favorite (although rare) collage material
source, and of all techniques, this is the only one I
would say has really related to how smart the kid is.
The best surrealist collages have come from the
brainiest kids. True humor/irony/satire takes some
smarts.

Another thing I like to do is print out a whole bunch
of copies of the Sistine Chapel creation of Adam (just
the hands, which they cut apart and use individually),
and Hokusai's wave, and Mona Lisa and the Scream - the
usual things they see a million times. They really
enjoy putting those object in unusual situations.